Everybody has that thing where they need to look one way but they come out looking another way and that's what people observe.

Diane Arbus

Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.

Excellence isn't an act, it's a habit

I think it does, a little, hurt to be photographed.

...I would never choose a subject for what it means to me. I choose a subject and then what I feel about it, what it means, begins to unfold.

You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw.

What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own.

I think all families are creepy in a way.

I mean, if you've ever spoken to someone with two heads, you know they know something you don't.

It's always seemed to me that photography tends to deal with facts whereas film tends to deal with fiction.

If I didn't have a camera, the things I do would be crazy.

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

One of the risks of appearing in public is the likelihood of being photographed.

I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.